Citifinancial and Belmont Thornton

bestaroi

Complicated story I will try and be concise. X amount of years ago we closed several loans by agreeing settlement amounts at a reduced rate. Few years back we were approached by Belmont Thornton to reclaim PPI. My husband discussed with the agent the fact that the company should not go after any companies we had made an arrangement with. He sent a pack out and advised us to sign and they would see what they could do but understand not to make such claims. Next we were aware we had a letter from Belmont saying they had been unsuccessful against one company which we did not think much of as there had been no settled agreement. Next early this year we had a letter from a solicitors saying we had to pay just under 5k for a debt which originated with Citifinancial otherwise court. The upshot was we paid it because citifinancial did not respond to us and time was limited . We were confused because we believed the debt had been settled. Recently we get a demand from Belmont for payment for services . It turns out they won £1800 from citifinancial for PPI . We had not been informed and the money had been ' swallowed up ' i.e taken of the remainder of the loan that had been settled and it appears as a consequence caused them to go for the rest of the money despite it having been settled, hence the 5K. I have a few issues- surely when a loan has an agreed settlement surely it is a contract and cant be gone back on because PPI is subsequently claimed ? Also re Belmont Thornton going against instructions , not informing us of their apparent ' win ' and as a consequence costing us 5 thousand pounds. Any advice would be appreciated . Thanks

[Deleted User]

bestaroi wrote: »

surely when a loan has an agreed settlement surely it is a contract and cant be gone back on because PPI is subsequently claimed ?

Any company who you did not pay the full amount to, can use the PPI payout as redress against the unpaid amount.

bestaroi wrote: »

Also re Belmont Thornton going against instructions

You should challenge Belmont on this.

bestaroi

Hi Thanks for the response. Yes I understand that but surely if you agree an amount - both parties involved- then the loan is closed .

[Deleted User]

No. They have agreed to take a reduced amount from you and not pursue you for the balance. But they are still out of pocket and can use this as redress.

bestaroi

Yes I do see Belmont as the main protagonist in the situation and have contacted them.. awaiting their reply

dunstonh

It is usually recommended that you do not use a claims company when you have debts in arrears, defaults or had amounts previously written off.

If you do, then the claims company will usually bill you for the whole amount of the redress, even if little or non of it is received "cash in hand" but offset against the debts.

have a few issues- surely when a loan has an agreed settlement surely it is a contract and cant be gone back on because PPI is subsequently claimed ?

Where a debt has an agreed lower settlement, the lender has suffered a loss. So, it would be entirely illogical and immoral for you to receive the PPi refund. Thankfully logic does apply here and lenders can use the capital part of the refund against any amount written off.

Also re Belmont Thornton going against instructions , not informing us of their apparent ' win ' and as a consequence costing us 5 thousand pounds. Any advice would be appreciated

You would need to take that up with BT. If they went against your instructions not to pursue a complaint against that lender then they are in the wrong. However, they must have had your signature on the authority letter to deal with that lender. So, you may be in a situation where you allege one thing but the evidence points to something else.

magpiecottage

There seem to be two possible lines of complaint here.

Firstly, Belmont Thornton should have made enquiries about whether there were any outstanding or written off debts before pursuing the complaint against Citifinancial at all.

So a complaint to [EMAIL="complaints@belmontthornton.co.uk"]complaints@belmontthornton.co.uk[/EMAIL] with a copy to consumer@claimsregulation.gov.uk seems appropriate.

If you do not get a satisfactory outcome you can go to the Legal Ombudsman.

Then, if you are correct and you had reached a settlement with Citifinancial, they should not have then attempted to pursue you further for it - let alone set solicitors on to you (if indeed they were solicitors and not just an in house department posing as solicitors).

Actually, what seems to have happened is that Citifinancial has ceased operating and outsourced responsibility to Canada Square Solutions who have messed up.

Snail mail this complaint to


Canada Square Operations Ltd
PO Box 4903
Worthing
BN99 3AR

Keep a copy and obtain and hang on to proof of posting (free from the Post Office).

If you don't get a satisfactory outcome from Canada Square Operations call the Financial Ombudsman Service on 0800 023 4567 for assistance.

[Deleted User]

dunstonh wrote: »

You would need to take that up with BT.

Probably best not to involve British Telecom

bestaroi

if you are correct and you had reached a settlement with Citifinancial, they should not have then attempted to pursue you further for it - let alone set solicitors on to you (if indeed they were solicitors and not just an in house department posing as solicitors)

It would appear that the remainder of the loan we had settled when reactivated was sold on to another company who then pursued us and threatened us with court. That was part of the initial confusion.......

dunstonh

if you are correct and you had reached a settlement with Citifinancial, they should not have then attempted to pursue you further for it - let alone set solicitors on to you (if indeed they were solicitors and not just an in house department posing as solicitors)

An agreed settlement does mean they should not pursue you for it. However, PPI redress can go against the amount written off as part of that agreed settlement.

bestaroi

Thanks- this is what I thought. Citifinancial should not have sold the debt on when we had had an agreed settlement and BT should not have pursued a claim for PPI when there had been an agreed settlement. Unfortunately regarding Citifinancial it is almost impossible to get a response from them. We have sent many letters by recorded delivery to no avail....